Construction students in the trades program at Battle Ground High School (BGHS) currently learn and build in a fenced portion of the school parking lot, and their projects are kept in storage containers.
By next year, that will no longer be the case.
At 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, staff and community members gathered at Battle Ground High School for a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the new 8,000-square-foot construction trades building.
The building will feature updated classrooms, shops and construction support areas.
It is scheduled for completion in mid-May of next year.
Battle Ground Public Schools Superintendent Shelly Whitten thanked the voters who approved the levy that provided funding for the trades building and other projects. She recognized many local partners and supporters, including Jon Girod, owner of Quail Homes, and Nick Massie, a key advocate for trade education who died in July 2025.
Career and technical education at BGHS, including the trades program, empowers students with many of the real-world skills they need for a smooth transition from high school to trade careers in construction, plumbing, HVAC or electrical work.
The new facilities will provide students with access to equipment and an environment that better matches the professional standard.
For high school graduates entering the workforce, trade careers are the primary alternative to postsecondary degrees. Trades such as construction are projected to create the most jobs in the region, according to Washington STEM, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing Washington students’ access to and awareness of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers.
Presently, BGHS students can take classes such as geometry in construction, which applies principles of geometry to hands-on construction projects.
Director of Career and Technical Education Cindy Arnold wants to offer further construction courses, such as advanced construction, and increase partnerships with local businesses in order to provide apprenticeships, internships and work-for-credit opportunities.
However, Arnold said Washington state House Bill 1644 — which increases strictures and penalties concerning “minor(s) participating in a bona fide cooperative vocational education program, diversified career experience program, (or) work experience program” — has complicated that goal.
House Bill 1644 aims to make workplace conditions safer for minors and to hold business owners accountable if serious policy or safety violations or injuries occur. But Arnold said that some business owners feel there is a lack of clarity about what constitutes “serious injury” on the job, and they are reluctant to take on the liability.
Community support and partnership are integral to the trades program and always has been. BGHS established the program in response to community suggestions and requests, and it is due to a voter-approved capital levy that the new trades building is being constructed at all.
Despite changing times, the future of the trades looks bright, and the community in and around Battle Ground continues to invest resources and attention into local students.
